Garry Wotherspoon looks at how TV soaps have done HIV lately.
Does life imitate art? This isn't just the sort of question you ask when they think someone might have taken Dame Edna as their fashion role model. Nevertheless it can be a very relevant question, especially when one considers how people with HIV are portrayed in the medium of TV.
Last year, the Los Angeles Times reported on a survey that showed that some 50% of the 38 million US residents who regularly watch daytime soap operas said they learned something about diseases and prevention methods. The survey also found that one-third of participants said they actually took some action based on what they had learned.
This issue of the role of entertainment media in people's lives is something that is being addressed. In the USA, health advocates are figuring out how to work with entertainment television, with the KNOW HIV/AIDS Public Education Initiative holding annual briefings during which TV writers and producers are provided with real-life stories of people living with HIV.
And the products are hitting our screens. The series Without a Trace, starring Australia's own Anthony La Paglia, featured an episode about a pregnant HIV positive woman who disappeared in the last weeks of her pregnancy. Similarly with the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit series - a recent plot line was the suggestion that HIV doesn't cause AIDS - a fringe theory promoted on the Internet, and by certain African leaders. Talking of that episode, its writer noted that "There are people who do believe these kinds of myths, and it can have an impact on their lives. If they don't take (HIV-fighting) meds, they're going to die." So the message here was quite deliberate: trust the results of the research that has been done in reputable labs around the world, and act on it accordingly.
And currently in Australia, there are two shows on Channel 7 that have dealt with HIV. In Episode 430 of All Saints, Finn, a “heroin addict” who's been bashed has been brought into the Emergency Department. He is uncooperative and abusive. When tests come back confirming PCP (Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia), it is clear that he is very unwell. When a doctor confronts him about his HIV status, he realises that the man has no idea how sick he is, and the doctor has to deal with a scared young man who is in denial. A range of issues - privacy, infectiousness, responsibility - are all canvassed here, and when the patient dies, what do we feel? Is there a moral tale here, about the 'wages of sin'? Or is it a lesson that early intervention might have saved a life? Different viewers might get different messages.
Far less ambiguous is a sub-plot in Home and Away which has an audience that is mainly the young - and very restless. Part of a current plotline revolves around Cassie's responses when she finds out that she has been made pregnant, and HIV+, by her partner Henk. And she really doesn't want anyone to know of her status. But all the characters are sympathetically portrayed.
In both these soapies, issues such as the implications of unsafe sex, disclosure - and the responses and repercussions - guilt and responsibility, are all canvassed. And both shows mirror real life situations that have taken place in Australia recently.
Attitudes to HIV positive sex workers in the mainstream media can be laced with a large serving of moral judgement, and it has not been unusual for someone who has not suspected their HIV status, and not regularly tested, to have unwittingly passed on HIV to their partner.
And what might have Australian viewers 'learnt' from these? The shows are 'real life', and their message - at least in Home and Away - was clear cut. But will attitudes change? Messages on the Home and Away blog show interesting responses: According to one viewer, "I think it is a great story line, and good for teenagers watching. They should be warned, and informed about safe sex... " And another blogger stressed the need to "read the basics on HIV and transmission, I cannot stress this enough", and gave practical advice on how to get information, including the website www.positivewomen.org.au.
So for younger (and some not so young viewers), it might be that their TV role models do manage to put across some very good messages. As to another issue - will HIV ever lose its stigma? Clearly, there's a long way to go with this yet.
So in Australia this year, we have seen something on TV that mirrors real life, and something in real life that mirrors what we see on TV.
